Heat your home efficiently
In Victoria, heating systems are essential for keeping your home comfortable and your family healthy on the coldest days, but passive techniques such as draught proofing, insulation and window treatments significantly reduce the energy required to keep a house warm.
Optimising the thermal performance of your home will greatly reduce your reliance on active heating systems, helping to reduce costs and to ensure your home is more resilient to extreme temperatures. CSIRO data on NatHERS star ratings indicate that 65.4% of homes in Victoria rate 2 stars or below, meaning there is significant scope for thermal performance upgrades.
Data from the Victorian Healthy Homes Program indicates that a relatively minor upgrade (which could include insulation, draught sealing, window furnishings and servicing or replacement of old heaters) had wide-ranging benefits over the winter period. Average cost of the upgrade was $2,809. Indoor temperature was significantly increased, while gas use was significantly reduced, and householders reported greater warmth and a reduction in condensation. Importantly, householders' quality of life increased and their healthcare costs were reduced by $887 over the winter period.
Making changes to heat your home more efficiently can:
- lower your heating costs by up to 40%
- create a consistent comfortable temperature in your home
- lower your greenhouse gas emissions.
This guide to heating your home efficiently will look at thermal performance improvements to keep the heat in, and provide tips to ensure your heating system is operating efficiently.
Minimise heat loss in your home
The ability to minimise heat loss in your home over winter and reduce your energy consumption and costs is dependent on the thermal performance of your home. Taking steps to improve your homes thermal envelope will ensure you stay warmer for longer and ensure your heating system is able to operate efficiently.
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Insulating your ceiling, walls and floor will help prevent the heat generated by your heater from escaping. It’s the most effective way to improve the energy performance and comfort of your home.
If your ceiling isn’t insulated, or the insulation is old, compressed or a low R value you should consider installing or upgrading it. If there is easy access to your roof space, it will be straightforward to have insulation installed and saves a lot of money in the long run.
Compared to a non-insulated home, a fully insulated home, can save 40–50% in heating costs.Insulation is something you can DIY although there are important safety considerations, so if you’re unsure, always get a trained professional to do this type of work.
Read about insulating your home. -
Draught proofing your home helps to prevent warm air from escaping in winter and hot air getting in during summer. Even small drafts have a big impact on thermal comfort, often resulting in having to set heaters to a higher temperature to maintain thermal comfort. Sealing drafts saves you money on heating and cooling your home, and makes your home more comfortable.
Self-adhesive draught seal tape, draught arrestors or draught snakes are an inexpensive way to draught proof your external doors. Seal small cracks and gaps with a caulking gun, and larger gaps with expanding foam.
Learn about how to find and fix draughts.
Safety note: If your home has un-flued or open flued gas heaters you need to maintain adequate ventilation to operate them safely. You should not seal any fixed vents that are required for this. It’s important to have a qualified gas fitter check carbon monoxide levels to make sure that the heating is operating safely especially after any draught-proofing.
If you have this type of heating it is important that you understand how to operate it safely.Read Energy Safe Victoria’s guide to heating your home with gas.
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It is important to get the most out of your windows, when the sun is shining through, ensure your blinds and curtains are open as it will help warm up your home. When the winter sun isn’t shining through or when your heater is running, close curtains and blinds to reduce heat loss through your windows.
Close-fitting, heavy curtains with a box pelmet will significantly reduce the amount of heat loss through windows during winter months.
Older windows can be a significant source of drafts, if you haven’t already, consider replacing or installing window seals and ensure sealant around the glass is in good condition.
Read about ways to reduce loss through windows.
Use your heating system efficiently
Making improvements to the thermal performance of your home by sealing draughts and updating insulation can help to keep your home more comfortable and minimise the need to use heating on all but the coldest days. It will also help to ensure your heating system operates more efficiently.
When using your heater, the following tips will ensure you are operating it efficiently and greatly reduce energy costs.
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One of the cheapest, and often missed ways to reduce the cost of heating your home is to ensure you are using the most efficient system. Many Victorian homes have both gas heating and reverse cycle air conditioning. Opting to use your air conditioner instead of gas ducted or gas room heating will result in significant savings. Reverse cycle air conditioners use heat pumps to shift heat rather than burn fuel to generate heat and are the most efficient way to heat your home.
If you are planning to renovate or your gas heater is nearing the end of its life, you should plan to replace it with an efficient electric option. This could be ducted reverse cycle, a split, or multi split system air conditioner.
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Assess which areas of your home need to be heated. You may be heating rooms that aren’t used, or don’t need to be warm.
If you have a room heater limit which spaces you’re heating by closing doors or use the zoning capability of a central heating system.
Use of things such as door snakes can also help to reduce heat loss making a room heater more efficient.
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In living areas, set your thermostat between 18°C and 20°C. Every degree higher can increase your heating costs by around 15%.
Your thermostat should be in living areas where you spend most of your time. Protect your thermostat from draughts and heat sources, like direct light, so that it accurately records the temperature. Don’t place your thermostat on an external wall.
Dress according to the weather conditions outside. If it’s cold, wear a jumper indoors. -
Turn your heater off while you're out of the house or overnight.
The exception is in-slab electric systems, which have a slow response time. Since these systems are running constantly in the heating season, lower the thermostat to 18°C to reduce your running costs.
Many new heating systems come with a built-in programmable timer, which allows you to turn your heater on and off automatically.
Timers can be purchased for plug-in electric heaters, but make sure the timer is suitable for the rated power consumption of the heater.
To reduce standby power, turn off your entire heating system when you go on holidays and during summer. This is different depending on your system.- If you have a gas heater, turn off the pilot light, if it has one.
- If you have plug-in heaters, turn off them off at the switch
- If you have an air conditioner, turn off the circuit breaker in the switchboard.
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Ducted heating systems have floor or ceiling mounted:
- outlets which blow hot air into rooms
- return air grilles which suck in the air to be reheated in a central heating unit.
Make sure you don’t block off the pathway between the heating outlets and the return air grille.
Keep curtains and furniture clear of outlets and the return air grille, so air is free to flow.
You can purchase air deflectors for your ducted heating systems. These can be placed on top of the floor vents to deflect the heated air away from windows and under furniture. Some floor vents have in-built deflectors.
Depending on your system, it’ll have its own airflow requirements you need to be aware of. Look through your heater’s operating manual, or our page about different types of heating systems. -
Reversible ceiling fans can redistribute the hot air which builds up near high ceilings. During summer, they push air down to provide a cooling breeze. But when reversed in winter, they pull air up from ground level, mix it with the warmer air at ceiling level and push it down the sides of the walls.
If you don’t already have reversible ceiling fans you should consider installing them.
Learn how to use ceiling fans efficiently. -
Clean the heating system filters regularly to keep your system working efficiently. These are located in the return air grille of ducted systems and inside the body of an air conditioner. Read through the heater’s operating manual for instructions on cleaning the filter pads.
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Have your heating system serviced regularly according to manufacturer's instructions.
Gas heating systems should be serviced at least every two years. Include a check on the carbon monoxide levels when the heater is operating.
Read Energy Safe Victoria’s guide to heating your home with gas.
If you have an older ducted heating system, have your ductwork checked when the heater is serviced. Ductwork can develop holes and splits, connections can become loose and animals can crush them, significantly reducing the efficiency of the system.
